Australian Paper Publishes Sexist Obituary Of A Talented Female Writer And Scientist
Wowwww.
#myozobituary is trending because author’s obituary, though stupid and funny, is actually terribly sexist pic.twitter.com/rjMUucJTQ7
— Felicity Morse (@FelicityMorse) January 30, 2015
Australian author and accomplished neurophysiologist Colleen McCullough published twenty-five books in her time, including the best-selling The Thorn Birds. She passed away at age seventy-seven on Thursday—but whomever wrote her obituary didn’t seem particularly interested in McCullough’s accomplishments.
Instead, her obit in this morning’s edition of The Australian began like this:
COLLEEN McCullough, Australia’s best selling author, was a charmer. Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth. In one interview, she said: “I’ve never been into clothes or figure and the interesting thing is I never had any trouble attracting men.”
Ah, so she was a prolific writer and a talented scientist, but let’s definitely all talk about her weight after she dies! They don’t even seem particularly concerned about it; the obit is still up on their website. Other gems from the piece include calling McCullough a “supreme egotist” and mentioning that “[h]er novels consistently received patronising reviews from the highbrow critics.”
The incredible classiness and inarguable misogyny of the obituary did not go ignored by the internet, and #MyOzObituary has been trending on Twitter to some fairly hilarious results:
Although his beard looked like someone had glued it on & his hair would have been unconvincing as a wig, he married a rockstar #MyOzObituary
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 30, 2015
Having learnt the art of eating with one hand whilst typing with the other, she managed to become both fat and a best seller #myozobituary
— Thane Prince (@ThanePrince) January 30, 2015
Though her eyebrows resembled Fangorn Forest, she had no elegance, and she wore men’s clothing, at least she had kids. #myozobituary
— Ellie Ann (@elliesoderstrom) January 30, 2015
#myozobituary would be “Although she grew a disappointing arse, she nonetheless got laid & won awards.”
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) January 30, 2015
With a decent rack but meh around the face, she nevertheless managed to land a man! She also wrote books, we hear. #MyOzObituary
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 30, 2015
Strongly resembling the wombats of which she wrote, she nevertheless was somehow not universally reviled by readers. #myozobituary
— Nightjar UrsulaV (@UrsulaV) January 30, 2015
“Hopeless, but at least he wasn’t a girl.” #myozobituary
— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) January 30, 2015
Overweight and with a tendency towards 5 o’clock shadow on the legs, she was able to science nearly as well as the men. #myozobituary
— Nicole Cloonan (@ncloonan) January 30, 2015
Here’s mine:
Despite her large nose & thighs, she still managed to hold down a man with his own TV show. She was a competent typist. #myozobituary
— Samquisitor (@SamMaggs) January 30, 2015
It is apparently still difficult for women to be respected for their accomplishments over their appearance even after death. What an absolute disgusting shame.
(via Daily Dot)
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